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December’s blooms

Thanks to Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day (hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens) I have gotten into the habit of checking the Higan cherry (Prunus subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’) in the Rose Garden for blooms this time of year. Just like clock-work, as of a couple of warmish days ago, it had opened a few nearly invisible flowers. (Now that the temperature has plummeted again, the safety is probably back on its bloom trigger.) I have to wonder though, what is it thinking to bloom at all in December? Will it be pollinated? Would it be able to set fruit? What’s the point?

I’m curious too about the winter heaths (Erica carnea ‘Springwood White’) beginning to bloom now – they must have willing pollinators on their native European moorlands but will they be worked on here? By whom? And the camellias in our greenhouse – ‘Debutante’ is our earliest to bloom – strike me as a little bit sad for not being likely to attract any kind of attention besides ours. (And we might be disappointed that while it looks a little bit like a rose, it doesn’t smell like one.)

I’ll admit that I have a one track mind right now and can only chalk it up to planning a feast for our pollinators in the gardens next year. Meanwhile, I know I should be grateful for any blooms that brighten a dark December even if we human gardeners are the only ones who get to enjoy them.